IT’S been a strange few years for Colin Tizzard. At Plumpton on Sunday, he had his first winner (the only one previously in that spell got the race on a disqualification) in over 14 days. When interviewed, he kept his good humour saying, “we needed a winner!”

During the week the news from the stable was not so smile-inducing. Thistlecrack will miss the rest of the season after a stress fracture in his leg, stable flag bearer Cue Card, misses an intended run and the trainer has called time on the chasing career of one of the most promising horses of last season, Finian’s Oscar, with a decision to go for the Stayers Hurdle.